2016-09-22

Chinese Toll Roads Have 4.5 Trillion Yuan Debt, No Profits

Chinese toll roads owe 4.45 trillion yuan in debt.

The road are not profitable, with expenses almost 80% higher than revenues.

And 80% of revenue goes to debt service and repayment.

The Ministry of Transportation issued the "2015 National Turnpike Statistical Bulletin" (hereinafter referred to as "Bulletin"), at the end of 2015, the national toll road mileage 164,400 km (excluding toll roads that have been canceled), representing 3.6% of total mileage. In 2015, the national toll road toll revenue was 409.78 billion yuan, expenditures 728.51 billion yuan, a deficit of 318.73 billion yuan, the national toll road debt balance increased to 4.44937 trillion yuan.

We go to our understatement of the day:

In response, Beijing Jiaotong University, Professor Zhao Jian told the "Daily Economic News" reporter, said, large debt balance of toll roads, and the size of the expansion, there is a certain debt risk, future toll road policy or facing adjustment.

The rest of the numbers:

According to the Ministry of Transportation introduced in our existing road network, more than 98% of the highway, 61% highway and 42% of secondary roads are built to rely on toll road policy.

By the end of 2015, the national toll road mileage of 164,400 kilometers, accounting for total highway mileage of 4.5773 million kilometers 3.6%. Among them, 117,000 km highways, 23,400 km highway, 22,900 kilometers of secondary roads, independent bridges and tunnels 1168 kilometers, accounting for 71.2% of total mileage charges, respectively, 14.2%, 13.9% and 0.7%

In construction investment, by the end of 2015, the national toll road construction cumulative total investment of 6.94885 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.1%. Among them, the capital investment of 2.18197 trillion yuan, borrowing debt principal 4.76688 trillion yuan, respectively accounting for 31.4% and 68.6%.

Borrowing debt investments is to further expand the scale of toll road debt, "Bulletin" shows that as of the end of 2015, the national toll road debt amounted to 4.44937 trillion yuan. Among them, the highway 4.14601 trillion yuan, accounting for 93.2%. Compared with 2014, the national toll road debt balance net 604.23 billion yuan, an increase of 15.7%.

The key is the widening operating deficits:

2015, the national toll road tolls total revenue of 409.78 billion yuan, an increase of 4.6%. But the total expenditure, compared to 728.51 billion yuan, an increase of 32.8%, whereby the annual deficit of 318.73 billion yuan, an increase of 102.9%.In recent years, the deficits from 2011 to 2014 was 32.33 billion yuan, 56.57 billion yuan, 66.05 billion yuan and 157.11 billion yuan, can be found in the gap was gradually widening.

The government wants to build roads, but doesn't have the capital:

Ministry of Transportation Highway Department Deputy Direction Sun Yonghong said the current focus on accelerating China's highway construction is still in the stage into a network of national financial investment can not meet demand. By borrowing new debt to build new toll roads, the debt level will expand for a period of time, debt service costs will see rapid growth.